Oftentimes, we tend to adopt certain words, phrases, and their meanings without giving a second thought as to why they mean or how they came about. We just accept them as we listen to others use them in certain contexts. One such word is "OK" which generally means "fine", "all correct", or "all right". But how did the word get its meaning and who started it all?

On 23 March 1839, OK was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post, in the midst of a long paragraph, as "o.k. (all correct)". How this weak joke survived at all, instead of vanishing like its counterparts, is a matter of lucky coincidence involving the American presidential election of 1840.

One candidate, Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and there was a false tale that a previous American president couldn't spell properly and thus would approve documents with an "OK", thinking it was the abbreviation for "all correct".

Within a decade, people began actually marking OK on documents and using OK on the telegraph to signal that all was well. So OK had found its niche, being easy to say or write and also distinctive enough to be clear.

Despite its growing trend, it didn't gain widespread use until the 20th century due to some associating the use of the word to being illiterate. But as with most trends, it found its way into everyday speech and eventually, everyone started to incorporate it in conversations with others.

OK used such familiar sounds that speakers of other languages, hearing it, could rethink it as an expression or abbreviation in their own language. Thus it was taken into the Choctaw Native American language, whose expression "okeh" meant something like "it is so".

US President Woodrow Wilson, early in the 20th Century, lent his prestige by marking okeh on documents he approved. And soon OK was to find its place in many languages as a reminder of a familiar word or abbreviation.

But what is it that makes "OK" okay? Read on to know more about it.

-via Twisted Sifter

(Image credit: d97jro/Pixabay)

India expressed their interest to join in the space race by being the fourth to land on the moon. It was launched in July and was expected to land in early September. As it reached the final stages of its landing attempt on September 6, transmissions from the spacecraft were cut and the status of the lander is uncertain.

From Space News:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission operation complex at Bengaluru, told press following the communications loss that, “it is not a small thing that we have achieved. Be courageous.”

The landing attempt continues a surge of lunar-related activity in 2019, following a failed soft landing attempt by an Israeli spacecraft in April and China’s unprecedented January lunar far side landing. The United States in March announced plans to accelerate a human lunar program with the target of a first landing in 2024.

(Image credit: ISRO)

American college dormitory living is fairly unique. Students at European colleges live mostly off-campus, and find the idea of sharing a bedroom with a stranger to be odd. The system we have has evolved over the course of more than 300 years, beginning from an initial philosophy of togetherness.

In the colonial period, college buildings were often single, multipurpose structures that housed all the functions of a school, including the president’s home, faculty apartments, student bedrooms, chapel, library, dining hall, and classrooms. Harvard’s first governing board reported in 1671, “It is well known … what advantage to Learning accrues by the multitude of persons cohabiting for scholasticall communion, whereby to acuate the minds of one another, and other waies to promote the ends of a Colledge-Society.” Since the actual curriculum was limited, Christian morality was a large part of what boys absorbed at the colonial college. This character formation was gained by observing role models; professors and students sharing living space was good for moral development. This attitude was an essential intellectual and emotional precondition for the American dormitory.

One can only imagine how that arrangement stifled faculty lives and inhibited recruiting. As more students went for higher education, colleges sprouted fraternity houses, then dormitories to compete with them, then special facilities for women. All that time, the philosophy of bringing students together strained against the philosophy of keeping them apart. Read the history of American college dormitories at Smithsonian.

As more areas of Thailand experiencing development, they may see more risky encounters with elephants crossing roads, making both elephants and humans prone to accidents. So organizations like WWF Thailand are looking for ways to conserve wildlife in the face of Thailand's development.

“Incidents of elephants getting hit happen from time to time, as some of the elephant movement areas have been converted to development areas, including roads,” says Dr. Arnold Sitompul, WWF Thailand conservation director. “New infrastructure development certainly needs to take wildlife movement as a critical factor.”

“In Ang Re Nai, for example, we have collared two individual elephants from two different groups to understand their movement so we can anticipate the HEC (human elephant conflict) before it becomes massive,” says Sitompul, adding that they are aiming to collar four more elephants in a separate group to get more information. “This preventive measure has been quite successful to reduce the scale of HEC in the community areas.”

“In the context of elephants getting killed by cars, sometimes it is unavoidable, as they are constantly moving,” says Sitompul, adding that the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has been working hard to put elephant signs on the main roads so that drivers will be aware of the potential elephant crossings.

(Image credit: stbaumgaertner/Pixabay)

One of the most popular cars in Volkswagen's lineup is the Beetle. But alas, the company has officially discontinued the production of its last Beetle model two months ago. However, some say that this is not the end for the Beetle.

Volkswagen has made three versions of the Beetle, selling more than 22.5 million of them over the years. Among passenger cars, the Beetle trails only the Volkswagen Golf and the Toyota Corolla in popularity. -CNBC

Now, it’s gone again as Volkswagen customers shift their wallets toward EVs, SUVs, and crossovers. But, have the people really slugged their last “punch buggy”? 

When asked in 2018 whether the Beetle would ever make its way back into production, Volkswagen Group of America President and CEO Hinrich Woebcken said, “There are no immediate plans to replace it. But . . . I would also say, ‘Never say never.’”

(Image credit: Stan Diordiev/Unsplash)

Here you see a close-up of the aftermath from #HurricaneDorian. This before (January 29, 2019) and after (September 5, 2019) is of Green Turtle Cay, #Bahamas. pic.twitter.com/lmhgo4mh6o

— Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) September 5, 2019

When calamities like hurricanes or earthquakes strike, they leave almost nothing in their wake. Almost everything will be leveled and destroyed due to the sheer strength and power of these forces of nature.

As seen in satellite images taken after Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, there was widespread devastation throughout the archipelago.

Dorian was a Category 5 storm when it hit the Bahamas on Saturday and then stalled over the northern Bahamas for days before continuing on its path. The storm is blamed for at least 30 deaths and Bahamas officials say that hundreds, or even thousands are missing.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show the damage to several parts of Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island, which suffered a direct hit from the storm. The images from before the hurricane were taken on October 25, 2018, and the photos after Dorian hit were taken on September 5.

(Image credit: Maxar Technologies)

Whenever you ride on high-speed roller coaster, make sure that you have everything strapped in and tucked away so that nothing will fall out. And if something does fall out, just hope that there is someone like this guy who will be able to catch it mid-air. -via Twisted Sifter

“I was in Spain at Port Aventura on shambhala ride and saw the person a few rows ahead drop their IPhone X. long story short I caught it. this roller coaster is moving at over 130kms…was once Europe’s tallest and fastest coaster.. only recently beaten.”

(Image credit: sirsammy15)

In the city with one of the highest populations in the world, one would be hard-pressed to find a moment wherein there are no people around to capture just the scenery of the place with its architecture, streets, and foliage.

For almost 30 years, Masataka Nakano has been doing just that in order to take photos of a seemingly deserted Tokyo, waiting for that one moment when all the people have gone and all that could be seen in his frame is the stillness of the landscape.

The face of Tokyo has rapidly changed over the last several decades and as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics approach, the rate of change has only accelerated. Which is why Nakano chose to now release a photobook looking back on all his past work.

Simply titled “TOKYO” (published 9/1/2019 and available through Tsutaya), the book traces a changing city but relies only on the vibrant streets and architecture.

(Image credit: Masataka Nakano)

It's no secret that there's bad blood between Japan and South Korea as memories from their historical tensions linger in the minds and hearts of South Korean people.

As such, with the upcoming 2020 Olympics Tokyo, South Korean Olympic officials have requested that Japan's Rising Sun flag be banned from the event as it is a symbol of Japan's aggression during World War II.

Kim Bo-young, an official from the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, says the request was made to the Tokyo Organising Committee during National Olympic Committee meetings in the city from Aug. 20 to 22. Tokyo organizers say they will not ban the flag, which portrays a red sun with 16 rays extending outward.

Organizers say “the Rising Sun flag is widely used in Japan; and it is not considered to be a political statement, so it is not viewed as a prohibited item.”

In South Korea and elsewhere in Asia, the flag is widely viewed as a symbol of Japan’s aggression during World War II. The flag is still in use, albeit not widely.

(Image credit: Kyodo/Japan Times)

One of Leonardo da Vinci's famous works, the Mona Lisa, may have had a much earlier unfinished version hidden in the vault of a Swiss bank. Historians are still debating on whether this is just a mere copy or something painted by da Vinci himself, but for now, people are disputing about who will get custody of it.

Known to some as the "Earlier Mona Lisa," the painting has spent much of the past five decades hidden in a Swiss bank vault. Acquired by a secretive consortium in 2008, the painting has since been shown in a number of galleries, most notably in Singapore in 2014 and Shanghai two years later.

Then, in June, it went on display at Florence's Palazzo Bastogi -- the first time it has been seen in public in Europe this century. As the show came to its conclusion, an anonymous claimant made a dramatic legal grab for a quarter ownership of the artwork.

More on this story at CNN.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

As we head into autumn, the hype surrounding episode nine of the Star Wars saga will intensify greatly -after all, there are toys to be sold! Meanwhile, there are eleven existing Star Wars films to review. Eleven? Yeah, and that doesn't even count the Ewok movies or the holiday special. The Daily Dot ranked them not by opinion, or at least not by their opinions, but by scores from Metacritic, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes, sites which crunch the numbers on a lot of opinions. Those of us who have been around long enough to see all the movies in theaters know that those opinions rise and fall over time, but go see how all eleven films rank against each other as of today. The list will grow to twelve in December when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens. Let's just hope it doesn't end up at the bottom.

While Vanessa and Alex, the founders of Messy Messy Chic, are off getting married, the rest of the team decided to post pictures of traditional bridal costumes from all over the world. Above, you see a Muslim bride from the Bulgarian village of Ribnovo, where the tradition is to cover the bride's face in thick gelena makeup and adorn her with sequins. Other regions of Bulgaria have their own particular wedding day makeup, elaborate but different.

In Ribnovo, however, the female in-laws are tasked with laying the bride down for the face painting sesh as she closes her eyes, and top off her look with a veil of tinsel, a necklace of money (which the groom will also often wear) and other trinkets. Perhaps most impressively, it’s only when the priest blesses the couple that the bride can open her eyes. It’s a two-day ceremony, but one that relishes in the gradual reveal of the bride, and her transition from single to married life.

Read of the different traditional ways the bride is made to look like queen for a day, from Mongolia to Morocco, at Messy Nessy Chic.

(Image credit: Flickr user Ali Eminov)

In an era of audio streaming and other digital music platforms, you wouldn't see a lot of people consuming their music through vinyls. But you would be surprised that vinyl records are actually about to outsell CDs for the first time since the 1980s.

Nearly $224 million worth of vinyl records were purchased in the first half of 2019, a nearly 13 percent increase from the same time frame in 2018. People bought $247 million worth of CDs, which is still ahead of record sales but only a .8 percent increase from last year.

The reason record sales might outpace CDs, however, is because of the growth in the second half of 2018 — Rolling Stone points out record sale revenue grew by nearly 13 percent in the second half of 2018, and CD sales experienced little to no growth.

(Image credit: Mirta Fratnik/Unsplash)

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK is the location where the prime meridian (0° longitude) was established in the Nineteenth Century, thus providing for a baseline of geographic standardization. You can follow that line (or any other line of longitude) up to the North Pole.

But the North Pole is usually not magnetic north, which is where compasses will point. Magnetic north does, however, move. And, and the moment, it allows compasses in Greenwich to point to both true north and magnetic north. The British Geological Society reports:

The angle a compass needle makes between true north and magnetic north is called declination. As the magnetic field changes all the time, so does declination at any given location. For the past few hundred years in the UK, declination has been negative, meaning that all compass needles have pointed west of true north.

The line of zero declination, called the agonic, is moving westward at a present rate of around 20 km per year. By September 2019, for the first time since around 1660, the compass needle will point directly to true north at Greenwich, London, before slowly turning eastwards. 

-via Kurt Schlichter | Photo: Virginia State Parks

This is the galaxy nicknamed “DF2”. Found some 60 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy has scientists baffled as it doesn’t have dark matter.

Because DF2 would be the very first known galaxy without the mysterious substance, the news of its discovery in 2018 quickly spread throughout the astronomical community. If confirmed, a galaxy without dark matter would throw a wrench into our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. Every galaxy we know of so far has a sizeable chunk of the invisible matter, so finding one without it would mean one of two things: Either DF2 never had any dark matter to begin with, or it somehow managed to shed its dark matter during the course of its life.

Astronomers have different theories about the galaxy. Check them out on Discover.

(Image Credit: NASA/ESA/P. van Dokkum (Yale University))